As a business owner, you will see other people around you taking a lot of interest in social media and investing in social media but is social media really worth all the hype, time, and effort? Well, let’s find out by having a look at some reasons why small businesses should use social media:
1. Cost-Effective Marketing
Social media marketing is a cost-effective way by which you can advertise your business. Small and medium-sized businesses that don’t have huge budgets can benefit from social media marketing since they will be able to advertise their brand and promote it in front of the target audience without having to spend much.
As compared to other marketing strategies, social media marketing is very cost-effective and you can reach your target audience without having to spend too much. We have different social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc that provide the services to promote your brand in front of the target audience using specific keywords, interests, and demographics.
2. Provide Better Customer Service
The customers of this age are different from customers of 20-30 years ago. Whenever customers face any sort of problem or they need help regarding any problem then they instantly visit the social media handles of the respective brand/company. There the customers voice their comments, and concerns and show off their anger/displeasure with the company/brand.
Through social media platforms, better customer service can be offered to the user by actively engaging with the users on your company’s social media pages and answering the questions of your customer, and providing them assistance publicly to also let other customers know about the quality of your customer service.
3. Improve Brand Recognition
You can also improve your brand recognition and create a voice for your brand through social media. For small businesses, it is usually hard to create brand awareness and recognition because it involves spending a lot of money, which they don’t have at that stage. Social media is a great way for small businesses to create a voice and promote awareness regarding their brand. Social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Omegle, Instagram, etc are completely free, right from making an account to setting up a brand page.
Through social media platforms, you can share behind-the-scenes information about your company, share something unique about your company, show your workspace, showcase the skills of your employees, and much more. It is not necessary that you always want to get more sales through social media, rather you should sometimes focus on creating a voice for yourself and showcase your brand to customers.
4. Make Yourself Visible
If you are not active on your social media pages then chances are that your customers would start to forget about your brand and instead start communicating or interacting with your competitors. It is a general thing because if the customers won’t see the updates from your social media handles regularly then they will most likely forget about your brand. As the proverb goes, “Out of sight, Out of mind”.
If you are not active on different social media platforms like Twitter, Chatroulette, Facebook, etc out there and not posting regularly then you will soon disappear from the minds of your audience and it will have a negative impact on your brand visibility. You should try to post on different social media platforms several times a week to let your audience know that your brand/company is up and running & give them a little reminder.
5. Build The Loyalty And Trust Of Customers
You can build the loyalty and trust of your customers through social media. You can allow your customers to share their stories regarding their experience with your company or brand. In this way, the customers will feel happy that they are being valued by the brand while for your brand, it will be a kind of word-of-mouth marketing where other people will take the words of your customers seriously and think about considering your brand.
We have prime examples of many restaurants and cafes doing this sort of social media campaign to build loyalty and trust. Whenever customers visit a restaurant then the staff encourages them to take a picture there, upload it on social media and tag their social media handles in the picture/story, after which the restaurant’s social media handles re-share that picture or story, making it a win-win situation for both the customers and also that restaurant.
You should take a few minutes out of your routine at the start and focus on social media. Remember that social media is all about consistency and you will have to stay consistent to see the results.